December 23, 2008

Ask successful people what the secret to their success is and they will all answer "I set personal and business goals, know the cost, commitment and time frame I want to achieve them in, and review them regularly"

Not everyone has the tools and motivation to do this until now....

"I have designed a program to make my unique coaching and goal setting system available to everyone via a very clever yet incredibly simple online program 'Coached Eggs'.

By
using the unique 'Coached Eggs' goal setting program, and the
motivational information and strategies I share, I know you will
heap success upon success until you have gained the balanced and
rewarding life you desire and you know you deserve.

I list these key reasons why allocating a little of your time and resources to yourself is such a very good idea.

Setting personal and business goals is essential to creating a wonderful life - not having life just 'happen' to you.

Working in a coaching environment challenges you to play harder.

You'll set much higher, larger and more amazing goals! You'll simply aim higher and live larger.

You will become more 'dollar productive', more efficient and so be able to earn more and have more time off!

You will become more honest about what you really want.

Life will become richer and easier.

How does Coached Eggs work

Coaching Eggs is 100% interactive. To achieve any goal you first
need to know what it is, when you want it and how much it will cost in
time, money or sacrifice. Coached Eggs helps you to do this by a simple
interactive program. Your goals can be set up in just minutes. The
actions required for each goal are chosen and you are on your way!
It's
just so easy - you login and check your progress every day, once a week
or once a month, the choice is yours? 'Coached Eggs' offers all the
support you need, with all the freedom to grow at your own pace and
achieve your own individual level of success.

Need inspiration?

An essential part of the Coached Eggs program is to offer regular
inspirational messages to encourage you to keep on track to achieve
your personal and business goals.
Coached Eggs will encourage
you to find the best in you and show you how to apply your strengths
for greater effect and gain. You will improve your performance.
The
mechanics that make all this happen are simple. As you explore the
online programme 'Coached Eggs', you'll discover it doesn't ask for
great slabs of your time. Our joint ambition is for you to achieve your
goals little by little, until the cumulative achievement sees a
dramatic fulfilling change.

What do I do now?

Changing your circumstances requires one initial decision- to get started!
Make
a decision right now to trial Coached Eggs for 30days. There's no risk
at all, if you unsubscribe at anytime with the first 30 days you will
not be charged one cent.
If you stay on, it will only be because you have gained so much value from the Coached Eggs program, it's simple worth it!

November 10, 2008

Now is the time to strike while all those around you may be
giving up – as your competitors spend precious Dollar Productive time preaching
the sky is falling and the market is tough?

They are so busy destroying their own reality while becoming
convinced it’s just all too hard at the moment. They just can’t see the massive
opportunity we are all given right here, right now!

So now is the time to take real advantage of your competitor’s
inattention to the huge amount of opportunities that are right there for the
taking. The beauty of the current climate is that it filters out the real performers
from the people that just cruise through the day soaking up their ‘natural
market share’ without really doing the business. When the going gets tough
these people just go – right out the back door.

Yes, we will see lots of casualties in the next few months
but for the serious people out there that’s not a bad thing. Even if the pie is
shrinking, it just gives the rest of us the chance to grab a great big slice of
a slightly smaller pie. That in its self can be a big piece of action.

What’s the strategy?

Right now, more than in any moment in time, there is a need
to strike a decisive blow to gain a big slice of market share off your competition.

As a winner of that new found market share you will be strengthening
up your foundations and scaffolding for even greater momentum when the market returns
to ‘normal’. Gaining critical mass now will pay huge dividends in the future.

Now is not the time to falter but to surge ahead and
dominate the business segment you are in. In tough times clients will gravitate
to positive, enthusiastic people who can provide answers and solve problems. If
you supply a product or service you need to become the ‘paramedic’ salesman- it's
time to stop selling pretty products and start selling ugly situations. Speaking
the truth to your clients about the realities of their situation is a hard
task, but your clients expect it and they will certainly respect it. And if you have the positive solution to cure
the illness - you will start to be the one to make all the house calls.

It's time to Zig when everyone else Zags

Don’t follow the herd; in most markets the minority of the
business people do the majority of business, so why follow the pack? The greatest
profit is made when you supply something, or do something, or solve something
no one else can. Being unique is a powerful position not a weakness. And courage
is needed to take the other road.

Charles Darwin said ‘It’s not the most intelligent nor the
strongest that survives, but the most adaptive to change’. What worked before might not now, the system
we used before might now be redundant, the advice we received could be a
generation out of context. Review your information and make a firm decision about
what, where and from whom you will now source your advice.

The Secret Weapon

I was asked the other day how my coaching clients were
fairing up in the current client. Without exception they are having record
months, gaining market share and increasing their income many times over. That’s
because our work together moves them against the natural flow, to gain when
others can’t and to join that exclusive club; the minority that earns the
majority of business within their chosen field. They choose to tap into a ‘tall
poppy’ group of winners and work with a business coach and mentorto stretch their thinking, their beliefs and
their knowledge to attain higher incomes, more time off and a far greater
quality of life.

But they won’t want me telling you this; it really is their
secret weapon.

Written by Grant Thorpe

Grant Thorpe is an internationally recognized Business
Coach, Mentor and Professional Speaker with ‘tall poppy’ clients throughout
Australia, New Zealand, Asia the United Kingdom and in the United States. His
successful work in this field coupled with his incredible energy and enthusiasm
makes him a highly sought after speaker.

Grant entrepreneurial background was founded in the Real
Estate Industry. He is known for being one of the best Real Estate marketers in
the world, and has become one of the most awarded and respected top performers
in the industry.

He has now developed a unique program for coaching top
achievers, which has rapidly expanded beyond Real Estate into a wide variety of
industries and marketplaces. www.grantthorpe.com

October 30, 2008

In a tough market like we are currently experiencing it's all
the more important to have a clear strategy for success. These are my 5 clever
strategies to making a huge gain against your competitors in a tough market.

1.Get up early and get started. Increase our work
rate and your work effectiveness by at least 20% to gain an immediate advantage
over your competition. This has a compounding effect over time. If I ran a mile
each day and you ate a Pizza, by the end of the year we would be 365 miles
apart and 365 pizzas apart. One of us would also have a 10 to 15 year life
expectancy over the other - one of us would look far better as well. Start now it's
never too late.

2.Have a Plan. Start the day with a plan to get in
front of the money. Prioritise your focus on the Dollar Productive Activity first
–leave ‘busy stuff’ to last.

3.Get Tough- to survive in a tough market you need
to get tough! Harden up and make some tough decisions to ensure your survival. If
it's a cost you don’t need, then get rid of it now! Avoid emotional attachments
– just make the call and act on the decision that is required.

4.Review everything – what was relevant a year ago,
a month ago, or a week ago may not be now. Be prepared to change and despite
all your beliefs calling you back into your old comfort zone, be prepared to
change direction to one that meets the current climate.

5.Don’t listen to anybody else! In a tough market
there are more doomsayers preaching the sky is falling than positive people
looking for the raft of opportunities that are right there in front of them. Work
out who you are talking to and stick with the positive group. Divorce the
others and no matter what, stick to your new plan and don’t deviate from it, no
matter how hard others try to influence you.

‘It's not the strongest or the most intelligent that
survive, but the most adaptive to change’

October 29, 2008

Coaching and mentoring is the growth industry of the century. More
and more people are recognising the value of having someone to guide them
through both the tough times and the good times – to maximise the advantages
each situation offers.

There are a number of benefits in having a coach or mentor to
guide you through the various stages of your career development. Average
performance should not be acceptable. Assistance may be required to achieve
above average performance.

It’s important to be able to have someone to bounce ideas off –
especially in a business environment. It is not always possible to be open and
honest with a colleague about what you are thinking – the things that you would
like to try, but aren’t sure whether they’d work; your reasoning for whether
they might be successful or not. To have an ‘independent’ sounding board whom
you trust and who will be honest with you, can be the difference between a good
idea and an amazing business activity/strategy.

If it’s good enough for athletes to have coaches (even “specialist
high performance coaches”), then it should be good enough for people in a real
estate business to have a coach or mentor to ensure performance levels are
high.

Business coaching is an effective way to surpass current levels of
performance and productivity.

The challenges faced by real estate businesses in terms of operating
effectively in an increasingly competitive environment means there is an
opportunity for some agents to step “up to the next level” and achieve much
better results than their competitors.

For the proper growth and development of any organisation, it is
necessary to have a management team that is up-to-date with recent trends and who
have beliefs, values, attitudes, motivation and thoughts that drive them to
excel and, more importantly, enables them to inspire their teams to excel.

Business coaching & mentoring provides the perfect platform
for developing personal skills and behaviors that are necessary for
implementing organisational changes and initiating the learning process.

If you always do, what you’ve always done – your results should be
easy to predict.

Business coaching or mentoring should be available at all levels of any
organisation. Sometimes it is an informal process, but it is most effective if
it is managed and controlled, monitored and supported by management.

The purpose is to improve the performance of those being
coached/mentored. The challenge is achieving this outcome with minimal disruption
to the business operations. However, if the result is an increase in the business
profitability (through more listings, sales & managements) then it should
be seen as a worthwhile use of time to develop the team members to achieve
these goals.

Grand finals and championships are not won without time devoted to
the training & development of all members of the team.

Real estate agents are not the best at sharing their “secrets of
success” with their colleagues. They operate in a competitive marketplace. They
have set targets, and sometimes these targets over-ride all other purpose in
their lives. The need to achieve those targets is often at the expense of
quality time with family & friends, or involvement in sport or leisure
activities. Their life balance is “out of whack”, in pursuit of their work
related targets and goals.

What is required at all levels of any business operation is an
understanding of the organisation’s current position and its future growth
patterns. Apart from effecting educational development and experience, coaching
also provides objective feedback and acts as a critical tool for successfully
engineering organisational change.

In adapting to the rapidly shifting marketplace, businesses often
need to modify or change their approach to capture a larger slice of the market
in which they operate. However, this is often difficult to implement as people
and organisations are naturally resistant to change. Business coaching has
become a very effective tool for initiating productive changes in individuals,
teams, and systems by enabling leaders, managers, and employees to uncover
potential that might otherwise go untapped.

To be able to do this is not an easy thing to do in the beginning.
The value of the changes need to be recognised first, and then “buy-in” will
occur. This shift in attitude and approach can be quite infectious and
profitable for all concerned.

“Steady as she goes” is not a good approach in today’s rapidly
moving and technologically advancing business environment.

There is a growing recognition that profits, productivity, and customer
satisfaction are the outcomes of performance rather than the cause. Coaching programs
can focus on leadership issues, cultural factors and the learning and
development practices that drive performance. Performance will drive
productivity and customer satisfaction, which then permits repeat business and
profitability levels to increase.

Everyone’s a winner!

The goal of coaching is not to be an alternative vehicle of
managerial control. It should concentrate on empowering and delegating to
create a culture of responsibility and self-generated, commitment-based
actions.

Coaching is certainly more than just a technique. It involves
viewing the business from a different perspective, working through
relationships, dialogue and feedback to harness future potential and growth. It
provides businesses with the ability to modify current work practices and communications.
Coaching has become an important differentiation mechanism for modifying or
creating an effective work environment that is more adaptable to change and
growth.

Coaching allows managers to more effectively confront challenges and motivate
others to achieve the business and personal goals. It creates awareness among
managers that they can transform or create a culture that is more receptive to
change and open to new possibilities.

Managers (as coaches/mentors) learn to increase their own self-awareness
to

decide when and how to take action

find creative solutions

consider opinions and feedback from fellow employees

set targets

make appropriate requests

decrease hostility

reduce stress and negative emotions in the workplace

Managers who are involved in the coaching process get a clear idea
about their own commitments, as well as those of the organisation. They learn
how to generate and maintain effective relationships, which in turn increases
the levels of trust and accountability in the organisation.

A coached manager’s understanding of organisational and
interpersonal dynamics is increased considerably, which in turn empowers them (and
others) to achieve the identified business objectives. They learn how to take
calculated risks for producing results aligned with the business vision. They
learn to develop the right kind of unity and team spirit that will allow powerful
work relationships to develop and that, in turn, will help achieve
extraordinary results.

There
can be no real justification for a business not wanting to improve the
performance of the team members – from receptionist to accounts/admin staff to
property & sales teams to principals. The level of training and development
that occurs is a reflection of the commitment of that business to being the
best they can be – and better than their competition.

Go
for Gold in an Olympic year!

Tony Rowe is General Manager of Corum Training, a
specialist provider of training to the property sector in NSW. Corum Training
has fully qualified trainers with extensive knowledge, expertise &
experience in the delivery of assessment & training services in real estate
across Australia and New Zealand.

October 23, 2008

Posted October 23, 2008Filed under: research | Tags: on line research, Traditional Vs On Line Comments(0)

I
must give a big thank you to Grant Thorpe who invited me to be a guest
speaker this morning on his international teleseminar. I first met
Grant when he and I appeared together in September when we hosted a
seminar series along with Ian Grace, and I would like to do more
appearances with him and we are planning to do just that hopefully in
the next few months, so stay tuned for that announcement. However, the
reason for this post today is to provide all of Grants listeners and my
readers with some of the updated stats that were discussed this
morning. We discussed during the teleseminar the changing nature of the
internet consumer and I used the following stats from the Sept 2008 CAR
Home Buyers Survey to highlight how this is changing consumer habits.

Most Real Estate Agents view the Internet as a buyers tool and will
use traditional advertising to impact the seller, in other words use
press to list and internet to sell. Well I would encourage you to
rethink that strategy, here are the latest research stats on Vendors vs
Buyers:

84% of Sellers search for their real estate agent on the Internet
vs 78% buyers - What does this mean for you? You need now to really
focus on using the Internet as a listing tool and make sure that you
have complete and up to date information on your listings. You need to
make sure your office and agent profiles on all the major portals are
complete and up to date. Give some thought to your on line reputation
because now the consumer will!!!!

43% of sellers found their agents in 2008 from a previous
transaction with that agent a drop of 10% on 2007, however the Internet
as a source of agent selection went from 6% in 2007 to 33% in 2008. The
impact of “For Sale Signs” in this decision decreased from 6% in 2007
to 2% in 2008.

The impact of traditional advertising on vendors is decreasing at a
rapid rate, hence the drop off in press readership. I refer you to a
previous post http://mikeandrewrealestate.wordpress.com/2008/09/01/traditional-vs-on-line-marketing-the-big-disconnect/ about the disconnect in advertising budget spend.

Also check out http://mikeandrewrealestate.wordpress.com/2008/10/09/car-2008-survey-of-california-home-buyers-released/ for more research stats from the C.A.R’s Sept 2008 survey.

I’ll also be interviewing Grant Thorpe for one of my podcasts over
the next week so stand by for that, and you can check his web site out
at http://www.grantthorpe.com

If you would like any additional information on this survey then
please email me or send me a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

October 21, 2008

I will forget about emails, meetings and clients.
I will escape road rage and peak-hour traffic.
I will wear boardies instead of a suit.
I will find the perfect wave.
I will be here the same time tomorrow.
I will make the most of every holiday moment.

August 19, 2008

Godin himself notes that much of the content of his book (and his earlier Permission Marketing) seems obvious. Yet, as he goes on to show convincingly, that which is obvious has rarely been practiced. When you read Godin's thoughts about permission marketing and ideaviruses, they may sound obvious yet almost all marketers continue to throw huge sums of money at old-fashioned interruption marketing. The infamous peak of this was the spurt of expensive Superbowl ads by transient e-tailers.

Like his previous book, Godin's Unleashing the Ideavirus entertains the reader while successfully setting off bursts of ideas along the way. Rather than marketing at the consumer, Godin's approach seeks to maximize the spread of information from customer to customer. The book provides the expected examples of successful ideavirus marketing, then develops a recipe for concocting your own ideaviruses. In order to show how to make your idea infectious, the book examines what makes a powerful 'sneezer', how 'hives' work, and applies the concepts of critical velocity, vector, medium, smoothness, persistence, and amplifiers. As Godin shows, the now-familiar idea of viral marketing is one very specific form of ideavirus marketing. Most businesses will not be able to engage in true viral marketing, but all can use the ideavirus approach.

While you may finish Unleashing the Ideavirus thinking that you really did not learn anything drastically new, it is unlikely that you will feel that you've wasted your time. Godin has once again written an enjoyable book that cleverly packages important ideas that have obvious practical use. Any book like this that causes the reader to continually stop and rapidly jot down ideas to implement is well worth the hour or two it takes to read.

April 08, 2008

I wanted to share this great little article written by Carla Cross, CRB, M.A.Carla Cross Seminars, Inc./Carla Cross Coaching in the USA as she talks about the need for a personal business coach in the real estate industry (or any other entrepreneurial business for that matter) - enjoy!

The
real estate industry is cyclical. You've heard people say that. There
are 'buyers' markets, and 'sellers' markets. There's another way the
real estate industry is cyclical, too. It's cyclical in its approach to
supporting its agents. When I started in real estate, (almost three
decades ago!), there was no training.

Then, companies started training programs. When I went into management
in the early 1980's, we were also taught to coach agents to higher
productivity. But, as money got tight, and real estate companies became
less profitable, they dumped their training programs. They asked
managers to also sell. Just ask any selling manager today whether they
have time to train and coach...you know the answer. It's 'no'.

Coaching is Big in the World of Business Today

However, in the world of business generally, coaching has become a big
thing. It's even swept into the realm of real estate again in the form
of paid, independent coaching programs. But, you may be one of those
who says, "I don't need a coach. I'm a self-starter. I can reach my
goals on my own." Having been in real estate for three decades, I've
heard that comment a lot. But, my experience has shown me that almost
everyone benefits from coaching.

Skills Come from Practice and Coaching Assistance

As a pianist since I was four years old, I know that peak performance
comes only with practice-perfect practice. And, therein lies the rub.
When you attempt to learn to play the piano by yourself, without a
teacher, you can't hear yourself play. You can't make adjustments fast
enough alone.

You need a great piano teacher who is helping you assess your
performance, make adjustments, and challenges you to stretch to higher
goals. The difference between one person's success in any field and
another lies, in part, in their comparable skills.

All experienced pianists can put their hands on the keys. They can play
the notes. But, most pianists haven't mastered playing the notes. They
haven't mastered the interpretation. That takes practice and coaching.

Do You Need A Coach?

Yes, if you are:

Not optimizing your talents

Not attaining your goals

Spending too much time spinning your wheels

Spending too much money for little return

Hitting ceilings of achievement

What Your Coach Can Do For You:

Help you focus on our goals so we get there faster

Motivate you to get into meaningful action

Encourage you to keep on keeping on

Offer resources for new ideas so we can take a different look

Appreciate your efforts when no one else seems to!

Real Estate Salespeople and Managers-a Special Breed

Approximately ninety percent of all real estate salespeople and
managers have behavioral styles that are highly aggressive and/or
promotional. That's not like the normal population! In other words, we
like people and we charge ahead (my motto is, when all else fails, read
the directions...). Only fifty percent of the normal population
exhibits those behavioral styles.

Other styles are more task focused and embrace procedure. Yes, we
salespeople-types have special talents-and special challenges. Our
biggest challenge is focus. We're great with people. We get into action
fast.

Our problem is that people and actions pull us in various directions,
and we lose the one thing that drives us toward our goals-focus. The
first and biggest benefit a coach can give us is to keep us focused.

Coaches Provide Much-Needed Models and Systems

Models and systems are woefully lacking in our real estate industry.
After all, we're the people who've always said, "Fake it until you make
it." What if your surgeon said that? Or your accountant? Historically,
we real estate professionals have had an aversion to following
procedures.

Yet, in the world of business, systems are the basis of all business
growth. For us too, systematizing is the best way we can build big,
profitable businesses. A competent coach uses proven models and systems
and processes that do more than stop our crisis management. They teach
us how to think about our business.

A Coach Helps You Move Faster and With More Confidence

Armed with great models and systems, you and your coach have a common
language from which to work. You will benefit from gaining focus. You
will accomplish more faster, gain greater confidence, and be able to
set higher goals as a result of your coaching experience and
relationship.

Corum TrainingWe're committed to your real estate success
Dedicated to best practice and life-long learning, the more we get to know you and your team, the more creative and aligned with your needs we can be.